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September 2, 2007

G137: Red Sox 3, Orioles 2

Lester kept his pitch count down today, but he still had trouble with walks (6-6-2-4-1, 90). His last batter was Ramon Hernandez, whose home run down the left field line leading off the seventh just snuck over the Wall, cutting the Sox lead to 3-2. Javier Lopez came in and finished the inning, retiring the three men he faced.

Jeemer gave up a double to Nick Markakis to start the eighth and a grounder to second put him on third, as the potential tying run. Jeemer proceeded to strike out both Kevin Millar (Thanks, Cabin!) and Aubrey Huff to perform a little Houdini magic of his own.

Snuffer dispatched the Birds on only seven pitches in the ninth (the second out was a running, sliding catch in shallow center by Coco Crisp, who was put into the game for the final inning).

Boston scored in the first, when Dustin Pedroia singled, David Ortiz walked and Mike Lowell singled to left. Jacoby Ellsbury's first major league home run made it 2-0 in the fourth and Lowell's sac fly in the fifth scored Pedroia (who doubled, and was at that point 10-for-his-last-16) to make it 3-0 Boston.

In New York, the Devil Rays -- mathematically eliminated from the division race by Boston's win -- beat the Yankees 8-2 and bumped the East lead to six games.

Gagne's shoulder has been a little tender and Tito says "for the next couple of days you might not see" him. Maybe worked too hard in side sessions?

Francona on Clay this morning:

"My concern was he'd be up around 110, 115 with a no-hitter, getting into an area he has no business getting into. That was the concern. I kind of told Theo, 'You can come out here and take him out.' And I was kidding, but you get the idea."

Hey what did you mean last night about me having lost my bid to be the next Lucen? I discovered this game thread only about 10 days ago, and never got into the SoSH board.

If I recall, Lucen broke with tradition and mentioned something about Schilling's possible no-hitter (maybe in the game thread) while the game was going on. G38 found out about it and blasted him a little bit in his blog post about the game.

Don't want to detour, but the blog I referred to is full of folks with deeply held convictions -- they just come at issues from different directions. And agreed, the left/right description is a little simplistic. We've got people from all over the spectrum. (Not to mention several Red Sox fans.)

And yes, it gets heated at times. But there's a lotta good humor, and that helps.

Redsock, fair enuf. But when, for example, you have veterans talking about the war from those differing perspectives, there's usually something to learn. Or economics. Or computer hacks. Or movies. Or baseball. Or rock and roll.

It's weird, but I'd suggest that despite the differing viewpoints, it is exactly what l-girl describes. A community of people with shared goals.

L-girlI'm SUPPOSED to be working.I have several invoices open on my screen. I just can't seem to stay on them long enough to get anything accomplished.My wife does keep looking over my shoulder saying 'Who's that bill for? Are we working for someone in Boston?

l-girl, okay, I'm hard pressed to think of a worse choke. And all becuz of one stolen base -- stolen, I might add, as the announcers were already describing the rebuilding effort the Sox would undergo after this humiliating sweep. Gack.

Hope you were there for game 5. Brosius's two out bottom of the ninth home run is as good as it gets. I literally fell over. (Which was not entirely due to what I was drinking.)

this is one of those games where it FEELS like it 10-0 but really isnt Kind of what I was getting at with my comment, which I sent before I saw yours.We really shouldn't be getting too comfortable here, but it just feels like we're kicking them